Member Astronomical League and International Dark-Sky Association
The Austin Astronomical Society's monthly club meetings are free and open to the public. Come visit us! The meetings are held on the second Friday of each month, beginning at 7:30 PM. Following upcoming meetings are profiles of previous meetings.
The meeting will be held on Friday, August 8, at the regular location (below). The speaker will be one of our favorite guest speakers, Robert Reeves. In June of 2008, he spoke at the Midwest Astronomical Imaging Conference in Chicago on "What's New in DSLR Imaging." Robert will reprise that talk for us.
Involved in astronomy for 50+ years, Robert has written dozens of articles for astronomy magazines and no less than 20 encyclopedia articles about space exploration. He is the author of three books, the most recent being an Introduction to Webcam Astrophotography, published by Willmann-Bell in 2006. His book projects have opened the door for Robert to speak at star parties, including our TSP and Eldorado star parties, Okie-Tex and the Winter Star Party. Robert has also spoken at a variety of venues around the country, such as the Northeast Astronomy Forum, AstroImage in Los Angeles, the Apollo Rendezvous in Ohio and a number of ALCON conventions.
Astrophotography has been a passion of Robert's since 1960. Wide-field piggy-back photography and lunar and planetary photography through the telescope occupied him through 1977. At that time, he obtained an 8-inch Celestron Schmidt Camera, later using it with a Celestron-14 telescope installed under in a friend's observatory's with a 4-meter dome. Robert worked in both color and black and white. Ultimately, Robert began his own observatory, the Von Braun Photographic Station, operational in 1986, eventually relocating it about 100 miles west of San Antonio. Robert's website is: http://www.robertreeves.com.
Regular Location. The regular meeting location is RLM Room 4.102 (The Wheeler Lecture Hall), in the Robert Lee Moore Building, on the University of Texas at Austin campus at the southeast corner of Dean Keeton and Speedway.
UT Parking. The UT Austin gates are only rarely staffed at the meeting time. After 5:45 PM permits are not required for many of the parking areas on the UT campus. HOWEVER, great care must be taken NOT to park in spaces that are marked "At All Times" or "All Other Times ...." (There is not a sign on every single space, but there is always one nearby that controls the spaces near it.) The open spaces are where signs mention a time period from 7:30 AM until 5:45 PM Monday through Friday. Those are available parking areas. However, even within these areas may be specific spaces with signs that say "At All Times" or "All Other Times...". Do not park in those spaces! Also, do not park in parking for the disabled if you do not have a disabled parking permit! Some disabled spaces say "At All Times." Do not park in those even if you have a state permit! See a printable map with directions.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on Friday, July 11, at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve. The speaker was Alan Sill, Ph.D. and TIGRE Senior Scientist, High Performance Computing Center Adjunct Professor of Physics, Texas Tech University. The subject of Dr. Still's July presentation was "Particle Physics in Space" and might otherwise be subtitled "High Energy Processes: What they are and what they are good for--How we know they are Out There--What can be found and who can find It--What we know and what we want to know."
Involved in the early stages of the formation of the Open Science Grid and the Texas Internet Grid for Research and Education (TIGRE) and in distributed computing for the Collider Detector at Fermilab, Dr. Sill was a primary organizer of and now leads the the development team for the TIGRE at Texas Tech University's High Performance Computing Center, where he has been Senior Scientist since 2005.
Dr. Sill's research experience in scientific computing covers approximately three decades and spans a range of topics in particle and nuclear physics, astrophysics and radiochemical analysis. He has authored over 300 publications spanning computational development, particle physics, nuclear physics, radiochemical analysis and cosmic ray physics. Having coordinated large-scale development projects for grid and distributed computing for the past decade, Dr. Sill also serves on a variety of related international standards bodies, including, among others, a working group on grid security.
The meeting was held on Friday, June 13. The speaker was Dr. Harold "Woody" Davis, who discussed the Phoenix Mars lander mission.
The meeting was held at Wild Basin on Friday, May 9. The speaker was Dr. Donald W. Olson, assisted by Mr. Russell Doescher, both of whom are on the faculty of Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. The topic was "Sun, Moon, and Tides at Caesar's Invasion of Britain in 55 BC".
The meeting was held on Friday, April 11. The speaker will be AAS member Bill Tschumy, who will discuss "Looking Between the Stars: The Form and Function of the Interstellar Medium". Also, annual officer elections were held.
Bill has been active in amateur astronomy for 23 years.
He has lived in Austin for the past 14 years and has been
a member of the Austin Astronomical Society during that
entire time. He loves to share his knowledge of the sky
with others and public star parties are a favorite of
his.
Although his formal training is in zoology, Bill works in
Austin as a software engineer. In 2006 he also
founded Think Astronomy
to help promote amateur astronomy in the Austin area.
He conducts monthly astronomy talks and star parties
at Westcave Preserve
and regularly at local schools and other venues. Bill has
written "Where is M13?",
a free software application that shows the viewer the 3-D
locations and physical properties of deep sky objects in
and around the Milky Way Galaxy.
The meeting was held on March 14. The speaker was Dr. Karl Gebhardt. Dr. Gebhardt's presentation was: "The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment: Understanding the Nature of the Universe". Dr. Gebhardt is a professor in the UT Department of Astronomy. He works on a variety of galaxy studies, ranging from black holes to dark matter to dark energy. Dr. Gebhardt has won numerous awards, including the Northeaster Graduate Schools Dissertation Award in 1995, a Hubble Fellowship from NASA in 1997, Teaching Excellence Awards from UT in 2003 and the McDonald Observatory Board of Visitors in 2004, and most recently a National Science Foundation Career Award.
Most of his career, Dr. Gebhardt has focused on understanding the role that black holes play in the formation of a galaxy. He has measured more black hole masses than anyone else in the world and he is actively targeting many more galaxies for this study. His recent work focused on understanding dark energy. It was shown a few years ago that the Universe is expanding much faster than expected. Scientists have called this extra expansion dark energy, a mysterious force that works to counteract the pull of gravity. It is actually pushing the Universe apart. Dr. Gebhardt and colleagues have outlined a unique approach to using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the McDonald Observatory. They believe their result will be the most accurate measure of dark energy for many years into the future.
The meeting was held on Friday, February 8. The speaker was Amanda Bauer, a UT Astronomy doctoral student, who discussed "A Long Time Ago, in Galaxies Far, Far Away". Astronomy always fascinated Amanda as a child, but she never thought that it could be a feasible career. As an undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati, she studied French for a year before recognizing her true fascination with the Universe. She changed her major to physics, having no real idea of what she was getting herself into! Ten years later, she is preparing to graduate from the University of Texas at Austin with her PhD in Astronomy, still not entirely sure of what the Universe has in store for her, but excited to find out!
The meeting was held on January 11. The speaker was Jeff Barton, who discussed "What can meteorites tell us, and how have we learned to listen?" Jeff's Meteorite Petting Zoo was displayed for us to view. He also had a microscope and webcam to project images of meteorite thin sections to illustrate how we find out some of the things we know about meteorites. Jeff (aka, the "StarGeezer") is a member of The Meteoritical Society, the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas, and is a part-time staff member and instructor at the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus of the Three Rivers Foundation for the Arts & Sciences. Jeff has been an amateur astronomer since he first saw the Moon in daylight through his third-grade classroom window in Ft. Worth in 1956. He has collected and studied meteorites for the past decade and operates a Meteorite Petting Zoo, a traveling meteorite exhibit he carts to public schools, astronomy club meetings and outreach events, and science teachers' workshops. He has been extremely active in public outreach, traveling several thousand miles to astronomy events and workshops in Texas and Colorado since retiring from Texas Instruments in 2000.
The meeting was held on December 14 at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve. This was our annual party.
The meetings were held on November 9. The speaker was Ian U. Roederer, a PhD student in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas, who discussed "Why the Periodic Table Cares about the Late Stages of Stellar Evolution". Ian's research concentrates on observing the chemical composition of the oldest stars in our galaxy. These stars help guide our understanding of the nature of the first generations of stars, the formation of our Galaxy, and the physical origin of all elements that comprise our Earth and ourselves.
The meeting was held on October 12. The featured speaker was Mike Siegel, who is a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia in 2002 and completed postdoctoral work at the Space Telescope Science Institute. His primary research uses photometry, spectroscopy, and proper motions of field stars, globular clusters, and dwarf galaxies to unravel the history of the Milky Way. His topic was: "Surveying Globular Clusters with the Hubble Space Telescope".
The meeting was held on September 14.
The August meetings were held on Saturday afternoon, August 12, at Canyon of the Eagles during the Central Texas Star Party. The speaker was University of Texas at Austin/McDonald Observatory research associate Judit Györgyey Ries, who discussed Near-Earth Objects.
The meetings were held on July 13. The speaker was McDonald Observatory astronomer Dan Lester, who will discuss the topic "Astronomical Telescopes and the Vision for Space Exploration". Dave Clark presented the constellations Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices.
The meetings were held on June 8.
The meetings were held on May 11. This was the occasion of our Annual Astrophotography Contest.
The meetings was held on April 13. UT astronomy graduate student and former high-school teacher Steven DeGennaro discussed "The Luminosity Function of White Dwarfs". The annual election of officers was held.
The meetings was held on March 9. UT astronomy graduate student Shay Strong discussed "Saturn and its Climate".
The meeting was held on February 9. Dr. Donald Olson and Russell Doescher from Texas State University gave a presentation on "Predicting Moonbows at Yosemite".
The meeting was held on January 12. The speaker was Agnes Kim of the UT Astronomy Department. She discussed white dwarf stars.
This month, on December 8, we had a club party, which was held at Wild Basin.
The meetings were held on November 10. The speaker was John Hall from Pegasus Optics.
The meetings were held on October 13. AAS member and officer Clyde Springen spoke on the "Dust in the Solar System".
The meeting was held on September 8. AAS member and secretary Ron Carman spoke on "Spectroscopy".
The meeting was held on Saturday, August 26, during the Central Texas Star Party (CTSP). The speaker was AAS member Bill Tschumy, who discussed the topic "Observing the Milky Way: Seeing the Forest and the Trees".
The meeting was held on July 14. The presentation was a showing of the movie "For All Mankind".
The meeting was held on June 9. The speaker was AAS member Anne Adkins, whose topic was a history of TSP, as presented at the South Pacific Star Party earlier this year.
The meeting was held at Wild Basin on May 12. It was time for the Annual AAS Astrophotography Contest. Robert Reeves from San Antonio discussed astrophotography using webcams.
The April meeting was held on April 14, and AAS member and Events Chair Clyde Springen discussed "Evidence for an accelerating universe".
The March meeting was held on March 10, and the speaker was Prof. Don Olson, with the assistance of Russell Doescher, both from Texas State University, San Marcos. The topic dealt with a couple of astronomical questions about Edvard Munch's painting, "Girls on the Pier". (Munch's most famous painting worldwide is "The Scream".) Prof. Olson also followed up on another previous presentation that included Ansel Adams' famous photo of the Moon rising over Yosemite Park's Half Dome.
The meetings this month were held on Friday, February 10. AAS member and Secretary Ron Carman discussed the Coriolis Effect.
The meeting was held on Friday, January 13. Our speaker was Dr. Eiichiro Komatsu, who discussed the topic "The Early Universe as seen via Cosmic Microwave Background".
Dr. Komatsu, a theoretical cosmologist, has a PhD in 2001 from Tohoku University, Japan. He was the WMAP postdoctoral research fellow, Princeton University, 2001-2003. He has been an Assistant Professor at UT, here in Austin, since 2003.
Dr. Komatsu investigates the physics of the very early universe (the epoch of inflation), using both theoretical tools and observational tools. The observational tools he mainly uses are the cosmic microwave background and the distribution of galaxies (called the large-scale structure of the universe).
The December meeting, Friday, December 9, was an AAS Holiday Party (Potluck), was held at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve.
The meeting was held on Friday, November 11. Our speaker was AAS member Bill Tschumy, who discussed "Escape from Plato's Cave: The Milky Way and the Galactic Coordinate System". (Download and view a copy of the presentation.)
The meeting was held on Friday, October 14. Our speaker was Dr. Mark R. Vining, who discussed "Observations and Conclusions regarding the Nature of the Milky Way Galaxy", a layman's look at the structure and processes of our galaxy in relation to the spectrum of galactic entities throughout the universe.
Doctor Vining has a PhD in Geosciences, Engineering & Mathematics. He is a professional geologist who works in groundwater protection for the State of Texas. He has worked in professional and educational capacities in the geosciences for over 30 years in oil and gas exploration and production, as well as in water resources. Since childhood, Dr. Vining has had an interest in astronomy and cosmology. He has an ongoing interest in modeling the forms of matter in the universe as they occur in natural agglomerations of different initial masses and compositions.
The meeting was held on Friday, September 9, at the Central Texas Star Party. Our speaker was Dr. Lesli J. Wood, a Research Scientist and Lecturer at the Bureau of Economic Geology in the University of Texas John A. and Kathyrn G. Jackson School of Geosciences, who will discuss "Deltas on Mars: Life in the Martian Marshes".
The meeting was held on Saturday, August 6, at the Central Texas Star Party. Our speakers were Don Olson, who discussed the moonrise photos of photographer Ansel Adams, and Barbara Wilson, who talked about "Dark Sky Observing at the Edge".
Our speaker this month was Larry Mitchell of Houston, who discussed Halton Arp and the Arp peculiar galaxies. Bill Tschumy presented Scutum as the Constellation of the Month.
Our speakers this month were Amelia Goldberg, who presented a "Universe Sampler", and Robert Reeves, who discussed "High Resolution Lunar Mosaics from Webcam Images". It also was the occasion of the AAS Astrophoto Contests!
Our speaker was Dr. Don Winget, Chairman, Astronomy Department, UT Austin.
Our speaker was astrophotographer Robert Reeves. We held our annual officers election.
Houston astronomer, Larry Mitchell, talked about Sir William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus and founder of modern stellar astronomy. Julia Harvey presented Cancer as the Constellation of the Month.
The meeting was held on Friday, February 11. Torvald Hessel of Friends of the Austin Planetarium presented "The 21st Century Planetarium". Brian Banicki presented Canis Major as the Constellation of the Month.
The meeting was held on Friday, January 14. AAS member John Carman talked about "time". Leonard Harvey presented Perseus as the Constellation of the Month.
Top of PageThe meeting on Friday, December 10. By a vote of the members at the November meeting, this month's meeting was a solstice/holiday party held at Wild Basin. There was a presentation of "An Unauthorized History of the Austin Astronomical Society".
AAS member Frank Mikan discussed "The Great Refractor-Reflector Debate" and also exhibited some very old astronomy books. The Constellation of the Month was Cassiopeia, by Dave Clark.
Clyde Springen discussed recognizing star types by their colors. The Constellation of the Month was Perseus, presented by Cecile Shopen.
The meeting was held on Friday, September 10, at the regular UT Austin location. Don Olson and Russell Doescher discussed "The Moon and the First Marathon". (See related Sky & Telescope article.) The Constellation of the Month was Cygnus, presented by Dave Clark.
The meeting date and location for this month only were changed by vote of the members at a recent meeting. The meeting was held at 2:00 PM on Saturday, August 14, at the Live Oak Room at Canyon of the Eagles. The speaker was AAS member Russell Croman, who discussed the topic, "A Sampler's Plate of Celestial Morsels — Comprehending the Scale of the Cosmos".
The meeting was held on Friday, July 9. The presentation was Educational Outreach in Austin Schools by Joe Farley, Leonard Harvey, and David Sands. All three of these fine gentlemen have been offering their time to local students to pass along their knowledge of and love for astronomy.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on Friday, June 11. AAS member Tim Kenyon presented his methods of producing his excellent sketches of Mars and also comets. Earlier, Darin Koch showed a very nice video he produced about Texas Star Party 2004.
The meeting was held on Friday, May 14 in a different room — RLM 7.104. A quorum was not present.
Professor Don Winget had cancelled, and AAS member Jim Walker spoke about celestial navigation.
The meeting was held on Friday, April 9, and was the night of the famous AAS Astrophoto contest. Officer elections were held.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on Friday, March 12. As a quorum was not present, no business was conducted. Richard Blake demonstrated the Orion Deep Map 600, and Tim Kenyon shared some of his lovely and very accurate sketches of comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake.
The meeting was held on Friday, February 13, and was an "eyepiece extravaganza", in which members "showed & told" their favorite eyepiece or filter.
The meeting was held on Friday, January 9. Rev. Jim Fahey showed some of his ATM projects, and Russ Croman briefly presented his new CCD camera.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on Friday, December 12. Our speaker was Prof. Don Olson who with his research associates has provided several great investigations into astronomy in art and history, and this time he and his colleagues had yet another fascinating discovery: the historical setting of the red-orange (some say "blood red") sky in Edvard Munch's famous painting, "The Scream".
At this meeting also, amendents to the AAS Constitution and Bylaws were voted on and passed.
The meeting was held on Friday, November 14. Mike McCants discussed "How to Discover a Satellite of an Asteroid", a PowerPoint presentation, related to asteroid occultations, developed by Paul Maley. Proposed amendments to our official documents (published in the newsletter) were discussed briefly during the business portion of the meeting; they will be voted on at the December meeting (above).
Top of PageThe meeting was held on Friday, October 10. It was a "Show & Tell" by various AAS members.
The meeting was held on Friday, September 12. This was an anniversary meeting. The scheduled "Show & Tell" has been held over until October. Nigel Cave presented Sagitta, Vulpecula, and Delphinus as the Constellation(s) of the Month.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on Friday, August 8. The speaker was UT Austin research scientist Dr. Peter Höflich, discussing the topic, "Chemical Structure of Type Ia Supernovae". The "Constellation of the Month" was Lyra, presented by Larry Poulsen.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on July 11. The speaker was AAS member and UT Austin research scientist Dr. Brad Schaefer (who will be leaving us soon to become a tenured professor of astronomy at Louisiana State University), discussing "The Origin of the Greek Constellations — Without Using the F**** Word". (Note: The mystery term is a five-letter word.) Brad also presented the Constellation of the Month, Corona Australis, as a springboard to his main presentation. The result was the longest "Constellation of the Month" followed by the briefest main presentation ever — and both at the same meeting.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on June 13 at the regular location, RLM 4.102 on the UT Austin campus. The speaker was AAS member Russell Croman, discussing digital astrophotography. The Constellation of the Month was Ophiuchus, presented by Jack Estes.
Digital cameras have revolutionized how we see the sky. Today, amateur astrophotographers can capture images that rival the quality achieved by professional observatories only a couple of decades ago. At first, the revolution was limited to those who could afford expensive, specialized cameras. Recently, the technological advance has reached into the realm affordable by many. Off-the-shelf consumer digital cameras and even inexpensive webcams are capable of capturing the heavens with surprisingly good quality.
Russell is an amateur astrophotographer. He has photographed over 60 objects in the last two years using a variety of telescopes and cameras, and has had his work published on the popular NASA website, Astronomy Picture of the Day, and in Time magazine. By day he is an electronics engineer, currently at Silicon Laboratories Inc. here in Austin, designing radio chips for cell phones. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Oak Hill.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on May 9. The speaker was Sheila Kannappan, Ph.D. The title of her presentation was "Galaxy Evolution: Things That Go Bump in the Night." She is a Harlan Smith Postdoctoral Fellow, McDonald Observatory, UT Austin (recent research proposal). The Constellation of the Month will be Bootes.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on on April 11. The great presentation was given by Don Olson and Russell Doescher. The title will be "More Van Gogh's Astronomical Art" — additional research following up on what they presented to us in February 2001. Photos are available: Langlois Bridge painted by Vincent van Gogh (full frame), Langlois Bridge painted by Vincent van Gogh (detail), and Don Olson in Provence (note T-shirt!).
Larry Forrest presented Corvus as the Constellation of the Month. Officer elections were held, and the officers-elect will take office in September.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on March 14. The speaker was Hum Mandell, who is a NASA JSC expert on the exploration and colonization of Mars (e.g., Early Mars Subsurface Access); so, the title of his presentation is "Early Human Exploration of Mars".
This evening we also had the annual AAS Club Astrophotography Contest.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on on February 14. AAS member Rick Kirchhof spoke about HAM radio and astronomy, specifically in relation to the Texas Star Party.
Top of PageThe meeting was held on January 10 at the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve. The speaker was James Bryan, who has been an AAS member for a long time, and has served the Society as our president. He described his topic in this way, "Nineteenth century Texas was not a time or a place in which we can easily imagine the presence of amateur astronomers. Yet, amateurs—just a few of them—were in Texas. In 1885 one of these rare people, Henry S. Moore, independently discovered the "new star in the Andromeda Nebula." This object was the first known extragalactic supernova [now known as S Andromedae], but its true nature was not explained until the 1930s. Who was Henry Moore and how did he come to participate in a landmark event that helped to change astronomy?"
Henry Moore's work is still used by professional astronomers today. James is having his research on this published sometime next year.
Bill Tschumy presented Gemini as the Constellation of the Month.
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